Weather in Dublin in April

A hard month. April asks something of you. Go in knowing what. Highs sit at 11.1 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

April ranks 6 of 12 in Dublin: past the worst of the year but short of July, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 13 days, 1 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 11.1 °C the difference between a good day and a miserable one is entirely down to what you are wearing.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: the day barely swings — 5.2 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest April day reached 17.6 °C and the coldest night fell to 0.4 °C.

April is statistically steady but not small: the year-to-year variation is modest in relative terms, yet the wettest April on record still delivered 98 mm against 23 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 61 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 14.8 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 86%, which at 11.1 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How April sits in the year

The month is on the way up: 2.1 °C warmer than March, and May adds another 2.7 °C. Late in the month feels noticeably different from the start of it, which is worth knowing if the trip is short.

Daylight in April

13.9 hours of daylight, gaining 2 hours across the month. That is between Dublin's extremes of 17 and 7.6 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

Despite being inland, the year stays fairly even: 13.9 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights.

How busy it gets

Shoulder. The value months — prices ease off and you get the place closer to itself.

Crowd levels are estimated from climate desirability and school-holiday calendars, not from visitor numbers.

April in Dublin versus nearby

If Dublin is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Galway is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day more rain. Cork is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day more rain.

So: April works, with July the better month by 16 points if the dates can move. If they cannot, nothing here should stop you booking.

Every month in Dublin

See all twelve months in Dublin, or where else to go in April.